Counterpart International's approach to community development starts with community mobilization to identify needs, provide access to options and skills for addressing these needs, promote local buy-in and investment by all stakeholders and produce concrete and visible results.

Counterpart International's (Counterpart) approach creates the confidence and capacity among the stakeholders to ensure sustained development over the long term. 

Projects begin with participatory community appraisal and action–planning by community initiative groups to prioritize needs and design projects that ensure investment and buy-in by all the stakeholders involved. Community Action Grants provide support to projects that can demonstrate investment by the community in partnership with local government and the private sector, as well as demonstrate a viable sustainability plan.

Over the past decade, this approach has produced concrete and visible results, benefiting millions, fostering trust and mutual respect and creating the foundation for continued partnership in addressing community needs over the long term.
 
Counterpart's conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution interventions build the capacity of communities and the institutions that serve them to:

• Identify and address the root causes of conflict,
• Engage in constructive dialogue and  democratic decision making and
• Develop consensus building and conflict management strategies.

Examples:

• In Central Asia, Counterpart has mobilized 2,143 communities in all 5 republics through participatory processes, which have resulted in 1,035 projects invested in by NGOs, local government, and communities themselves that benefited 2.8 million citizens. 
• Working in the most insecure area of Iraq, Al Anbar Governorate, Counterpart has mobilized 49 communities to implement 60 community development projects, including rehabilitating schools, constructing health centers, paving roads and developing IT and English language training centers. Local community and government contributions to the projects, which created over 7,000 jobs, accounted for 20% (nearly $370,000) of total funding.
• In southern Uzbekistan, Counterpart trained over 5,780 people in Project Planning and Management and Conflict Prevention.  Democratically elected Community Improvement Councils implemented more than 250 infrastructure projects which benefited over 750,000 residents and reduced ethnic tensions in 72 communities. 

Photo: Environmental cleanup in Ahal, Turkmenistan. © Counterpart International.